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Create a new project

Start from the starter repository (recommended for new sites)

If you are beginning a docs site from scratch, fork docslab-co/basedoc-starter on GitHub. The starter includes a working basedoc.json, example pages, and a media folder so you can link the repo to Basedoc and start writing without setting up the layout yourself.

After you fork it (or push the template into a new repository under your account), use that repository when you create your Basedoc project below.

Link GitHub to Basedoc

Once you're signed in, you can create a new project by clicking the "New Project" button in the top right corner.

Projects are linked to a GitHub repository. You will be sent to GitHub to select the repository you want to link to your Basedoc project.

Once you are sent back to Basedoc you can finalise the project name and free .basedoc.io subdomain. You can also select the branch you want to use as your "live" branch.

Then you're all set!

Custom domain or subdirectory

You can configure a custom domain for your project's hosted site to make it easier to access your documentation. This requires adding a DNS record for your domain to point to Basedoc.

To add a custom domain, go to your project in Basedoc and select Settings in the top right.

Here you can add a custom domain to your project, for example docs.example.com or mydocssite.com.

In the form, enter the domain you want to use and click Save domain.

You can also configure your hosted site to be available at a subdirectory of your domain, for example https://example.com/docs.

In your project settings in Basedoc you can add a subdirectory value for your project, for example /docs.

Here you can note your domain and define the subdirectory path for your project, for example /docs.

Add content to your project

To add content to your site, create pages in your project.

You will need to add YAML frontmatter to the top of your pages to configure them, like the title and description.

---
title: Page title
description: Short summary of the page.
---

Page content is written in Markdown. You can also use components to add extra content blocks to your pages.

Add API documentation to your project

You can add API documentation to your project by creating special Markdown pages with Basedoc's API frontmatter.

---
title: API Documentation
api:
  endpoint:
    post /v1/users:
      summary: Create a new user
---

Publish your changes

Create commits on your selected production branch (e.g. main) and the changes will be automatically published online.

You can also preview changes on PRs. Every PR gets its own preview build of your site, which you can see in your Build History.

View your site

Your site will be available at https://<your-project-name>.basedoc.io or at your custom domain or subdirectory.

Add docs to LLMs

Basedoc offers a number of ways for AI agents and LLMs to access and index your documentation.

As you publish documentation to your project, Basedoc works in the background adding things like the "Use in AI" button for easily adding pages to LLMs, Markdown versions of all of your pages, and chunking your content for a public search endpoint.